川普與特魯多通電話敦促儘快完成自貿談判
U.S. President Donald Trump urged for a quick conclusion to a renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement during a phone call Monday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The White House said Trump "underscored the importance" of quickly reaching a deal, while Trudeau's office said the two spoke of the "possibility of bringing the negotiations to a prompt conclusion."
The talks have come under increased pressure to quickly produce a deal after U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said this week he would need to be notified of a new agreement by May 17 to give the current Congress a chance to pass it this year.
Canada, the United States and Mexico are renegotiating their 24-year-old free trade pact in a process triggered by the Trump administration. Trump has been highly critical of the 1994 deal, blaming it for the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs that hurt the U.S. economy.
He has repeatedly threatened to leave the pact if a satisfactory updated agreement is not reached.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Monday that none of the contentious issues the three countries have been discussing appear to have been resolved. Ross, who is not directly involved in the NAFTA talks, told reporters in Washington Monday that the big issues are still a "work in progress."
Last week, the latest round of NAFTA talks ended in Washington without any major breakthroughs on how to renegotiate the deal. Those talks were the first to involve all three of the top officials in the negotiations — U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo.美國總統川普星期一和加拿大總理特魯多通電話時呼籲儘快結束脩改北美自由貿易協議的談判。
白宮說，川普總統強調了儘快達成協議的重要性。特魯多總理的辦公室說，兩位領導人討論了儘快結束談判的可能性。
新一輪貿易談判受到儘快取得成果的更大壓力。美國衆議院議長瑞安本星期說，如果要想讓美國國會今年批准，他必須在5月17號之前收到已達成新協議的通知。
加拿大、美國和墨西哥正在進行川普行政當局促成的談判，修訂實施了24年的自由貿易協議。川普總統長期以來一直批評這項貿易協議，並指責它造成美國損失數百萬份工作，傷害了美國經濟。
川普總統多次威脅說，如果不能達成令人滿意的新協議，就將退出現行協議。
美國商務部長羅斯星期一說，三國一直在討論相互有爭議的問題，但是看來沒有任何問題得到解決。並未直接參與談判的羅斯部長星期一在華盛頓對記者說，仍在對重大的問題進行討論。
上星期的北美自由貿易協議談判在華盛頓結束，在如何重新談判達成協議的問題上沒有取得任何進展。這次談判第一次有美加墨三國最高貿易官員參加，他們分別是美國貿易代表萊特希澤、加拿大外交部長長克里斯蒂婭·弗裏蘭和墨西哥經濟部長伊爾德方索·瓜哈爾多。
